Technologies
Streaming Guide February 2023: 4 Services You Should Definitely Keep
The return of You and Party Down mean Netflix and Starz are keepers this month.

TV lineups tend to be a bit a dry at this time of year, but February is Super Bowl time and there’s still plenty to watch on streaming. But beware, changes are rolling in for some of your favorite services, including a $1 price hike for HBO Max’s ad-free plan and extra fees if you’re sharing your Netflix account. Despite those price hikes, you’ll want to keep those services if you’re planning to keep up with The Last of Us and You season 4, which are streaming this month.
Onward. You can stream Super Bowl 57 on a live platform such as Sling TV, Hulu with Live TV or YouTube TV. But if you’re wondering how you can cut corners elsewhere in your streaming budget, we’ve got you covered. Rotating — or churning — your services is the way to do it.
How? You subscribe for a specific time frame, cancel, choose a different service, then resubscribe, keeping your favorite streaming services in a rotation. Choose one or two must-have platforms for the year and treat additional platforms like occasional add-ons. This allows you to save money when Netflix, Disney Plus, HBO Max and others don’t have the movies and shows you want to watch at a given time. Just remember to shut off auto-renewal for your monthly subscriptions. If you share accounts with someone outside your household, this strategy may not be ideal, but if you can work it out with your streaming mates, go for it.
Here are my suggestions for which streamers to keep or cancel for February based on new TV shows and movies arriving on each platform. Your tastes may be different, but if nothing else, I encourage you to at least consider the concept of rotating your memberships to save money.
Read more: Best Live TV Streaming Service for Cord Cutters in 2023
Definitely keep Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu and Starz
Netflix: Joe Goldberg’s antics on You aren’t the only attraction on Netflix this month. There’s a documentary about a rich dog, more Outer Banks, anime and reality TV. Here’s a list of noteworthy new releases:
- Detective Conan: The Culprit Hanzawa (Feb. 1)
- Gunther’s Millions — documentary about a dog with a hefty inheritance (Feb. 1)
- Freeridge — an On My Block spinoff (Feb. 2)
- Bill Russell: Legend (Feb. 8)
- My Dad the Bounty Hunter animated series (Feb. 9)
- Love to Hate You — K-drama (Feb. 10)
- You season 4, part 1 (Feb. 10)
- Your Place or Mine starring Ashton Kutcher and Reese Witherspoon (Feb. 10)
- Perfect Match features an all-star lineup of Netflix dating show contestants (Feb. 14, 21 and 28)
- African Queens documentary series (Feb. 15)
- Aggretsuko season 5 (Feb. 16)
- Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal (Feb. 22)
- Outer Banks season 3 (Feb. 23)
- Formula 1: Drive to Survive season 5 (Feb. 24)
- We Have a Ghost (Feb. 24)
HBO Max: Keep watching The Last of Us and tune in for the Max exclusive, Harley Quinn: A Very Problematic Valentine’s Day Special on Feb. 9. Also new this month: Empire of Light (Feb. 7), All that Breathes documentary (Feb. 7), Aqua Teen Forever: Plantasm (Feb. 8), Puppy Bowl XIX (Feb. 12) and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (Feb. 19).
Hulu: Your network favorites are still airing current seasons, but these are new arrivals in February: A Million Little Things final season premiere (Feb. 9), ABC’s Not Dead Yet (Feb. 9), final season of Wu-Tang: An American Saga (Feb. 15), The Masked Singer season 9 (Feb. 16), American Idol season 21 (Feb. 20) and Snowfall season 6 (Feb. 23).
Starz: After ending more than a decade ago, Party Down returns for a season 3 debut on Feb. 24. BMF is still airing too. Shop around for Starz deals to pay less for your subscription for the next few months.
Prime Video: You should cancel Prime Video if you only have a standalone subscription and you’re not interested in Carnival Row season 2. Otherwise, check out the fairy drama on Feb. 17 along with Harlem season 2 (Feb. 3) or The Consultant starring Christoph Waltz (Feb. 24).
Disney Plus: Again on the keep-cancel cusp this month, Disney Plus may be tempting for the short term if you love Black Panther or if you have kids. You can keep streaming Star Wars: The Bad Batch, but here are the new selections for February: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Feb. 1), The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder season 2 (Feb. 1), Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur (Feb. 15) and BTS star J-Hope’s In the Box arrives Feb. 17.
You can drop these streaming services this month
Apple TV Plus: There’s not much to stream here. We now know Ted Lasso isn’t coming until spring, but if you want, you can stream Hello Tomorrow! or Dear Edward on Feb. 3 on Apple TV Plus. We’ll also note that subscribers who are soccer fans can begin signing up for MLS Season Pass beginning Feb. 1 and receive a discounted rate.
Paramount Plus: Football season is over, so you may not want to dish out the money for Paramount Plus this month. But here’s what’s new: 65th Grammy Awards (Feb. 5), rom-com movie At Midnight debuts on Feb. 10, Star Trek: Picard season 3 (Feb. 16) and The Wolf Pack TV series starring Sarah Michelle Gellar airs through February until March 16. Drop the service if you these titles don’t interest you.
Peacock: If you’re a fan of Bel-Air, keep Peacock because season 2 debuts on Feb. 23. This is also where you can watch SyFy’s The Ark (Feb. 2) and The Real Housewives of New Jersey (Feb. 9). Cancel if you’re not interested in these releases, or in the awfully good Poker Face.
Save more money with patience
Waiting until most or all of the episodes of your favorite series arrive on a platform is a smart move to make if you don’t get FOMO. Instead of paying for a service for two or three months to cover a show’s six- to 10-week run, you can catch up on everything by subscribing for one month. And then repeat the cycle again.
For example, there are 10 episodes of Star Trek: Picard this season on Paramount Plus. The show airs into April, so all 10 episodes will available to stream at that time. Though it premieres in February and runs through April, why pay for three months when you can wait to watch it in full at any time in April? The same system can apply to all 10 episodes of Hulu’s Wu-Tang: An American Saga or Peacock’s Poker Face.
Consider how much you’re paying per month for each streaming service, and do the math. Netflix costs $7 to $20, Disney Plus is anywhere from $2 to $11 depending on bundles, HBO Max costs $10 or $16, Hulu starts at $8 and Starz runs $9. The others have a base rate of $5 a month. Should you decide to churn, set yourself a calendar reminder to alert you when it’s time to resubscribe or cancel. We’ll see you in March for another streaming rundown.
Technologies
Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Oct. 23 #599
Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Oct. 23, No. 599.
Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.
Today’s NYT Strands puzzle might be Halloween-themed, as the answers are all rather dangerous. Some of them are a bit tough to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.
I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.
If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.
Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far
Hint for today’s Strands puzzle
Today’s Strands theme is: Please don’t eat me!
If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Remember Mr. Yuk?
Clue words to unlock in-game hints
Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:
- POND, NOON, NODE, BALE, SOCK, LOVE, LOCK, MOCK, LEER, REEL, GLOVE, DAIS, LEAN, LEAD, REEL
Answers for today’s Strands puzzle
These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:
- AZALEA, HEMLOCK, FOXGLOVE, OLEANDER, BELLADONNA
Today’s Strands spangram
Today’s Strands spangram is POISONOUS. To find it, look for the P that is the first letter on the far left of the top row, and wind down and across.
Technologies
Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Oct. 23, #395
Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Oct. 23, No. 395.
Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.
Today’s Connections: Sports Edition has one of those crazy purple categories, where you wonder if anyone saw the connection, or if people just put that grouping together because only those four words were left. If you’re struggling but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.
Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.
Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta
Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups
Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.
Yellow group hint: Fan noise.
Green group hint: Strategies for hoops.
Blue group hint: Minor league.
Purple group hint: Look for a connection to hoops.
Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups
Yellow group: Sounds from the crowd.
Green group: Basketball offenses.
Blue group: Triple-A baseball teams.
Purple group: Ends with a basketball stat.
Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words
What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?
The yellow words in today’s Connections
The theme is sounds from the crowd. The four answers are boo, cheer, clap and whistle.
The green words in today’s Connections
The theme is basketball offenses. The four answers are motion, pick and roll, Princeton and triangle.
The blue words in today’s Connections
The theme is triple-A baseball teams. The four answers are Aces, Jumbo Shrimp, Sounds and Storm Chasers.
The purple words in today’s Connections
The theme is ends with a basketball stat. The four answers are afoul, bassist, counterpoint and sunblock.
Technologies
Amazon’s Delivery Drivers Will Soon Wear AI Smart Glasses to Work
The goal is to streamline the delivery process while keeping drivers safe.
Amazon announced on Wednesday that it is developing new AI-powered smart glasses to simplify the delivery experience for its drivers. CNET smart glasses expert Scott Stein mentioned this wearable rollout last month, and now the plan is in its final testing stages.
The goal is to simplify package delivery by reducing the need for drivers to look at their phones, the label on the package they’re delivering and their surroundings to find the correct address.
Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.
A heads-up display will activate as soon as the driver parks, pointing out potential hazards and tasks that must be completed. From there, drivers can locate and scan packages, follow turn-by-turn directions and snap a photograph to prove delivery completion without needing to take out their phone.
The company is testing the glasses in select North American markets.
Watch: See our Instagram post with a video showing the glasses
A representative for Amazon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
To fight battery drain, the glasses pair with a controller attached to the employee’s delivery vest, allowing them to replace depleted batteries and access operational controls. The glasses will support an employee’s eyeglass prescription. An emergency button will be within reach to ensure the driver’s safety.
Amazon is already planning future versions of the glasses, which will feature «real-time defect detection,» notifying the driver if a package was delivered to the incorrect address. They plan to add features to the glasses to detect if pets are in the yard and adjust to low light.
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